SPEECH 

O F 




S. TEACKLE WALLIS, Esq. 

As Delivered at the Maryland Insiilule, 
On Friday Evening, February 1st, 1861, 

A.t tlio IMeeting Held. Untler tlie f<>llo-\virjj^ Call: 

j^^^TowN Meeting in Favor of Restoeivg the CoNSnruTiONAL U.nion of the States. — 
The citizens of Baltimore, who are iu favor of restoring the Constitutional Union of the 
States, and who desire the position of Maryland in the existing crisis to be ascertained by 
a Convention of the People, are respectfully requested to attend in Mass Meeting, at the 
Hall of the Maryland Institute, on Friday Evening, 1st of February, proximo, at 7i o'clock. ) 



Corrected from the Report for the Daily Exchange. 



S. Teackle Wallis, Esq., who was greeted with, loud and prolonged 
applause, said: 

My Friends and Fellow-citizens : — I think my friend who has just taken 
his seat, (Mr. McLane,) has apologized to you, with great injustice to 
himself, for the desultory manner, as he called it, in which he has dis- 
cussed the questions presented to you by the resolutions. I confess 
that in rising to succeed him, I am greatly embarrassed by the eloquent 
fulness with which he has addressed those questions to your considera- 
tion. I feel too, fellow-citizens, that the reasoning involved in the issues 
before you is almost exhausted by the simple statement of the proposi- 
tions which the resolutions themselves, announce. The unanimity with 
which those resolutions have been greeted, demonstrates that both they 
and their reasoning have gone home already to your hearts and judg- 
ments, (applause,) and there is, therefore, little left for any man who 
speaks to you, but to echo v/ith a feeble voice, the sentiments which 
you have already spoken with a loud one. (Applause.) 



Printed and Publiahed by Murphy & Co., 182 Baltimore street, BaUimore— Price G] cts. 



•v// 

But, my felloAV-citizens, I have a feeling in addressing you this even- 
ino- wliicli overcomes all consciousness of embarrassment, and that is 
the feeling of intense, personal indignation at the position in which I 
am compelled to stand before you, and in which you are here listening 
to what any of us may have to say to you. (Applause.) The Governor 
of the State of Maryland, who would have been at best your servant, if 
he had been chosen by your suffrages — (" That's so," and applause) — 
but who was not chosen by your suffrages and yet insists on being 
your master — has given it to be understood, that those who do not 
a'^ree with him in thinking it the bounden duty of Maryland to be 
voiceless and motionless in this great crisis of the Eepublic — you and I 
and every honorable and patriotic gentleman around me— are but a 
hor4e of disorganizers and disunionists — not fit to be heard upon the 
question of saving your country and mine. (Applause.) 

Not merely by his illegal and unconstitutional course has he con- 
demned us to silence and helplessness ; not only has he held us up to 
public and private denunciation as foes to the Union— weakening the 
confidence of brother in brother, and poisoning with suspicion the rela- 
tions of friendship and good citizenship among us— but he has permitted 
the Governor of Pennsjdvania, in an official letter, unrebuked, to insult 
us, citizens of Maryland, by charging that those of us who advocated 
the call of the Legislature were seeking to " swerve " him — the Gov- 
ernor of Maryland— " from the path of duty." (Applause.) Speaking 
for myself, and for the friends w^hose sentiments I know, and in whose 
action I have shared, I pronounce the imputation false— whether it be 
official or unofficial — whether it come from the Governor of Pennsyl- 
vania, or from the Governor of Maryland, or the clique behind him. I 
sav it is an imputation which the people of this meeting, of this city, 
and of this State, if they respect themselves, should resist and denounce. 
(Great applause.) 

Not love this Union! In the name of the God who gave it to us, 
what higher stake has the Governor of Maryland in it than you or I? 
r Applause.) Who kindled a heart in his bosom, to beat in truer or 
more fervent and grateful sympathy, than yours or mine, with all the 
glories which this Union has brought us— with its countless blessings 
and its magnificent hopes? Is it that the Governor and his counsellors 
understand these things better than we ? Do they mean to tell us that, 
like the friends of holy Job, " they are the people, and wisdom shall die 
with them ?" (Laughter and applause.) 

My fellow-citizens, I was taught, from my childhood, to love and 
cherish the Union, and there is not a reflection or conviction of my 



manhood that lias not warmed and strengthened my devotion to it, and 
heightened my zeal for its perpetuation. When I was called upon, dur- 
ing the last Presidential canvass, to choose between Mr. Breckinridge 
and Mr. Bell— notwithstanding the preference which I entertained for 
the former gentleman, because of his ]ieciiliar position in regard to the 
constitutional questions of 'the day — I was chiefly and especially led to 
his support by the conviction (as I more than once publicly stated,) that 
the electoral vote of Maryland, rendered in his behalf, Avould place her 
side by side with her Southern sisters, in a ])osition to counsel peace 
and moderation, and keep unbroken the blessed bonds in which our 
fathers bound us together. (Applause.) 

It was suggested here during that canvass, as we all know, in public 
speeches, by gentlemen who claim to represent us in Conoress, that 
there was no reasonable apprehension of disunion — that the threats of 
the South were all bluster, and would amount to nothin"- when the time 
came. It was manifest, nevertheless, to those who looked at the past 
and the future with the cahuer and juster eyes of statesrpanship, that 
an issue had for a long time been approaching which might at any mo- 
ment be precipitated upon the country, and that unless the fanaticism 
of the North should cease its aggression, and demagogues, not of the 
North, should cease to play into its hands, the point of resistance must 
soon be reached, and the question of Union or Disunion be met and 
settled forever. To suppose that it could be evaded or ignored was 
simple folly. To hope for the maintenance of the Union, without re- 
moving the causes which were daily converting into hatred and aliena- 
tion the brotherly feeling on which the Union is based — and without 
which it can never stand, and will not be worth preserving — was equal Iv 
futile. 

As one of the humblest of those to whom the future presented this 
threatening aspect, I could not resist the conviction, that there was but 
one hope of relief belbre us — in case good feeling should be powerless, 
and the point of conflict should be reached — and that was, for all the 
States whose institutions and rights were in peril, and who desired to 
maintain the Union ami the Constitution, to unite in one phalanx, and 
with one voice to say to the aggressors — " Here is the Rubicon — you 
shall not pass it!" (Applause.) And, my fellow-citi^^ens, as surely as 
you live and I live, if even the border States alone of this Union, two 
months ago — with Maryland in their midst, speaking for herself, and 
her great stake in the Republic — had taken that manly ground, moder- 
ately and calmly — without threats and without insult, but with fixed 
and immovable resolution — the point would have been gained, the 



appeal would have been responded to, the wrongs would have been 
righted, the agitators Avould have been silenced, the crisis of the Repub- 
lic would have been over, with all its sorrows and dangers, and the 
places of industry and labor and happiness, now desolate, would be 
blossoming like the rose. (Great applause.) Over the waves of 
fraternal discord, the people of these central commonwealths had 
only to stretch forth their hands, and the divided waters would 
have been a wall to them on their right hand and on their left, 
and they could have walked dry-shod through the midst, Avith the 
Union and the Constitution. (Applause.) It was- the high destiny of 
A\rorking this great and glorious good that I, for one, would have had 
Maryland win for herself. It was for this that I would have had her lift 
herself from the criminal supineness in Avhich she has lain, and which, 
until of late, the Border States have too far shared Avith her. But Mr. 
Hicks has willed it otherwise, and it has come to this, in the order of Prov- 
idence, that since this crisis has been upon us, tliere has been no State 
of Maryland, but Mr. Hicks and the clique around and behind him. 
(Laughter.) 

And even now, at this present, and anxious, and almost despairing 
moment, Avhen the Union is Avell nigh in the throes of its dissolution, 
and Virginia has called together a council of her sisters, to save it, if 
they may, in its last hour— even now, the people of Maryland have no 
voice of their own, whereAvith to speak in its behalf. The represent- 
atives who stand in her place in that council, speak neither your voice, 
nor my voice, and have authority to represent nobody but Governor 
Hicks and themselves. (Great applause.) Nay, I am Avrong. They do 
represent something more than a mere absence of authority. There yet 
linger in this Hall the echoes of the speech Avhich Avas made here, not 
long since, by my able and venerated friend — the Honorable Reverdy 
Johnson, noAV one of the Commissioners — the conciliatory burden of 
which Avas a legal argument, to shoAV that the people of the seceding 
States were traitors, and might be punished for their treason. In com- 
mingled echoes come back to us, also, the suggestions of the address 
which my eloquent friend, Mr. Bradford, another of the Commissioners, 
delivered at the same time, and in which he told the "friends of the 
Union," that in considering the solemn issues Avhich divide the nation, 
they ought to concentrate their ehbrts upon the open revolutionists of 
the South, and not Avaste their strength upon the Northern aggressor as 
the first wrong-doer! With these ideas of AAdiat is demanded for fra- 
ternal reconcilement— for the healing of Avounds, and the re-establish- 
ment of peace among brethren on the basis of right— I regret to believe ' 
that the distinguished gentlemen whom I have named do represent pos- 



itivc opinions, wliicli are utterly hostile to the rooted and solemn con- 
vietions of the good peojile of this Commonwealth. I speak with all 
the respect and consideration due to their high character and talents, 
and with all loyalty to personal I'riendship. If, by their efforts and 
influence, they can save this Union, or aid in saving it, as it has been 
to us heretofore and ought to be forever, tlicre will not rise to heaven a 
prayer of thankfulness more earnest and unqualified than mine. Be 
the result of their mission, nevertheless, what it may, it is due to our- 
selves and our rights to declare, that the act which has given them their 
places is a gross ofl&cial usurpation. (Applause.) 

In commenting thus far upon the action of the Governor of Mary- 
land, I have dealt only with generalities. I desire to do him no injus- 
tice, and I am prepared to verify what I have said and mean to say, and 
what has been said by my distinguished friend, (Mr. McLane,) in regard 
to the course of Governor Hicks, by reference to his own published let- 
ters and addresses. I hold in my hand his various and progressive 
contributions to constitutional literature and jurisprudence — (laughter) 
— "which — pardon me— I do not mean to read." The starting-point in 
Dorset County, from which he brought the rudiments, is very far 
removed, I assure you, from the point which he has attained in his com- 
munication to the Commissioner from Alabama. Let me invite your 
attention for a moment to the progress of his ideas. 

On the 27th of November, 1860, Governor Hicks addressed a letter 
to the Honorable Thomas G. Pratt, and other gentlemen, who prayed 
him to exercise his powers and discharge his duty, by calling an extra 
session of the Legislature. He declined to comply with their solicita- 
tions on the following grounds : 

" I cannot but believe that the convening of the Legislature in extra 
"session at this time, would only have the effect of increasing and 
"reviving the excitement now pervading the country, and now appa- 
"rently on the decline. It would at once be heralded by the sensitive 
"newspapers and alarmists throughout the country as evidence that 
^'Maryland had abandoned all hope of the Union, and was preparing to 
"join the traitors to destroy it." * " * * * * 

" You, gentlemen, favor an extra session only because of the iraport- 
"ance of the present crisis; but there are others who think of their own 
"interests rather than those of the State, who would be found seeking 
"to monopolize the valuable time of the bod}' in furthering schemes of 
"personal advantage, which can well afford to await the meeting at the 
"regular session." 

Nevertheless, he said that " the wishes of the people should certainly 



"be respected in this matter," and after insisting on the propriety of 
waiting until we should "hear from the National Executive," from 
"the other Border Slave States," and from "the congregated wisdom of 
"Congress," he declared, " I shall hold myself ready to act promptly, 
"when I shall believe the honor and safety of Maryland require me to 
"act in the premises." Time wore on. The National Executive had 
been heard from, and, it seems, without much consolation, for the Gov- 
ernor had waxed nigh to being a "secessionist" On the 6th of Decem- 
ber, he addressed a letter to Captain John Contee, of Prince George's, 
which stepped, as it seems to me, far over the boundaries of what he 
now supposes to be treason. 

" If the Union must be dissolved," he says, " let it be done calmly, 
"deliberately, and after full reflection on the part of a united Southr 

He then discusses the Personal Liberty Laws, and proceeds to declare, 

that 

" These laws should be repealed at once, and the rights of the South 
"guaranteed by the Constitution, should be respected and enforced. 
"4//!er allowing a reasonable time for action on the ijart of the Northern 
^^States, if they shall neglect or refuse to observe the jylain requirements of 
^Hhe Constitution, then, in my judgment, we shall be fully ivarranted in 
^^demanding a division of the country. 

" We shall have done our duty to the Constitution, to the memory of 
"our fathers, to ourselves and posterity, and the South can h^Morably 
"ia/t-e such stejjs as patriotism and honor may demand, either in or out of 
'Hhe Unioru' 

In conclusion, he adds : " I shall be the last one to object to a withdrawal 
^'of our Slate from a Confederacy that denies to us the enjoyment of our un- 
''doubted rights: but believing that neither her honor nor interests will suffer 
''by a proper and just delay I cannot assist in placing her in a position from 
"which we may hereafter ivish to recede. When she moves in the matter, I 
"ivish it to be side by side with Virginia — our nearest neighbor — Kentucky 
"and Tennessee^ 

If all this be not rank " secession," as the Governor now understands 
it. T cannot understand him. I do solemnly pronounce it treason, for 
which he ought certainly to be hanged— (laughter and applause) accord- 
ing to his doctrines, I beg you to understand me— not according to 
mine. But whether it be treason or not, I ask you emphatically to 
note the sentiments declared, from the executive chamber. I ask you 
to bear witness from the Governor's own unequivocal, and I trust con- 
scientious language, that on the 6th of December he called for the action 
of " a united South ;" that he recognised the right of the South to 
"demand a division of the country," if its constitutional guarantees 



were not protected, and to act "citlicr in or out of tlie Union;" nnd 
that he declared he would be "the last man to object to the witlidrawal 
of our State" from the Union, in such a contingency. All that lie asked 
for was " reasonable" delay — all that he claimed for Maryland, was that 
she should be " side by side with Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee." 
Time still went on. Upon the 9th of December, it became the duty of 
Governor Hicks, to respond to the communication addressed him by a 
commissioner from Mississippi, Again his plea was only "that time be 
given, and opportunity aftbrded for a fair and honorable adjustment." 
About the course to be adopted, in case that adjustment could not be 
made, he had neither doubt nor difficulty. " Fraternal concert with the 
other Border States " was still his alternative. Here is his language : 

" Whatever j^oioers I may have I shall use only after full consultation, 
" and in fraternal concert loitJi the other Border States, since we, and they, 
" in the event of any dismemherment of the Union luill svfjer more than all 
' others combined^ 

'^I am noiu in corres'pondence luith the Governors of those States, and I 
'■'■aiuait with, solicitude for the indications of the course to he pursued hy them. 
" When this is made known to me I shall he ready to take such steps as our 
^^duty and interest shall demand, and I do not doubt the people of Maryland 
'■^are ready to go with the people of those States for loeal or luoeP 

And he added — ''I fully agree with all that you have said as to the ne- 
"cessity for protection to the rights of the South ; and my sympathies are 
•'entirely with the gallant people of Mississippi who stand read}'- to re- 
"sent any infringement of those rights. But I earnestly hope they will 
"act with prudence as well as with courage." 

On the 3d of January, 1861, being pressed by a majority of the Sena- 
tors of Maryland to call the Legislature together, he published an 
address to the people, in which he protested and enlarged upon his own 
patriotism in refusing to convoke it; denounced the motives and 
principles of "the men embarked in the scheme" of calling it together: 
charged the existence of a conspiracy to capture the Capitol and the 
federal archives, which, he intimated, was at the bottom of the movement 
he was resisting ; and endeavored to rally the citizens of the State around 
himself and his policy, by every appeal to their fears, their sympathies, 
their credulity and their prejudices. Yet even in this, the most elabo- 
rate and passionate of his eftbrts, he did not venture to desert the plan 
of consultation and united action with the Slave States of the Border. 

"Believing," h<i declares, " that the interests of Maryland icere hound up 
''with those of the Border Slaveholding States, I have been engaged, for months 
''past, in a full interchange of views loith the Governors of Virginia, Ken- 



8 

'■Nuclei/, Tennessee mid Missouri, with a view to concerted action upon ottr 
^^part. These consultations, ivhich are still in progress, I feel justified in 
'''■saying, have resulted in good; so that token the fro'per time for action 
^''arrives, these sister States, bound up in a common destiny, will, I trust, he 
'■''prepared to act together^ 

And, he adds, with increasing emphasis : 

"I firmly believe that the salvation of the Union depends upon the 
"Border Slave States. AVithout their aid, the Cotton States could never 
"command the influence and credit and men essential to their existence 
"as a nation. Without them the Northern half of the Eepublic would 
"be shorn of its poAver and influence. Within the Union, I firmly 
"believe we can secure guarantees for our protection, which vfill re- 
"move these distressing causes of irritation, 

'■'■If \oe find hereafter that the North shall, after due deliheratioii, refuse to 
'■'■give them, we will, in a united hody, demand and receive a fair division of 
"■the national domain^ 

On January 12th, a committee of most respectable gentlemen, depu- 
ted by a conference from all portions of the State, and held in the Law 
Buildings of this city, had an interview with the Governor. The Con- 
ference had deferred to his declared objections to the convocation of the 
Legislature, and the committee were instructed merely to solicit, that 
he would issue his proclamation inviting the people to determine, by 
their ballots, whether they desired a Convention to be called. In case 
of an afl&rmative response to the appeal, the Governor was requested to 
designate a day for the election of members to the contemplated body. 
The Governor declined. He still desired delay. "He preferred wait- 
ing" (according to the announcement in the Baltimore American) "until 
Mr. Crittenden's compromise resolutions should be finall}^ acted upon, 
before taking any decisive step upon the subject at issue." On the 24th 
of Januar}'-, to the astonishment of every body, except those initiated in 
the mystery, there appeared in the Annapolis Repuhlican, a copy of a 
letter bearing date as far back as the 8th of that month, and addressed 
to the Hon. J. L. Corry, Commissioner of Alabama, wherein every pre- 
vious suggestion of the Governor, and of everybody else, looking to "a 
united South," a "concert of the Border States," "a united body," a 
position " side by side with Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky," an asso- 
ciation, "for weal or woe," with those States, or any other States, "in a 
common destiny," is utterly repudiated and denounced, as a flagrant 
violation of the Constitution — a step to which "the people of Marjdand 
will never consent !" Such "fraternal concert" for &r\y purpose or in 
any shape, is not (he says) for an instant to be tolerated. Let us hear 



the language in which this (hictrine is proclainuMl, from the same lips 
by whioh the people of Maryland were so ol'ten assured, as I have 
shown you, that the identical course, now so bitterly denounced, was 
nearest the Governor's heart. lie speaks thus, 

''I cannot see how, while the Constitutional pi'ohibitiDU stands against 
"compacts or agreements between any of the States, any "mutual league" 
"can be had, even between those Avhose hopes and hazards are alike. 
"And if this prohibition has been judicially declared to include 'every 
"agreement, written or verbal, formal or informal, positive or implied, 
"by the mutual understanding of the parties,' then I am unable to 
"imagine how any league or covenant or understanding whatever, un- 
"authorized or unapproved by Congress, even though it should be in 
"furtherance of the laws and for strengthening the Confederacy, can 
"be otherwise than in plain violation of the clearest provisions of the 
"supreme law of the land." 

Instead, therefore, of hearkening to any such treason — instead of 
proceeding with the Border States "in a united body, to demand and 
receive a division of the national domain;" instead of "demanding a 
division of the couutr^^;" instead of having our Governor to lead us, "in 
fraternal concert with the other Border States," in the ultimate vindica- 
tion of our common rights and " common destiny" — instead of " con- 
certed action, upon our part," with the people with whom we are 
" ready to go" — we are to do what ? Abide by the action of Congress ! 

"The Congress of the United States," says the Governor, "offers the 
only mode, authorized by the Constitution, for consultation and advise- 
ment among the several States. To the Cono-ress I still look with con- 
fidence for such enactments as shall secure our just and equal rights, 
and shall satisfy all except those who are determined to be satisfied 
with nothing but revolution, and the hopes that are to arisg to them 
from anarchy and confusion." 

Fellow-citizens ! does not this suffice ? Is it not as plain as fact and arcru- 
meut can make it, that the people of Maryland have been deluded and de- 
ceived ? Is it not manifest that they have been entertained and kejit quiet by 
assurances of a desire and a purpose to unite them, in the vindication of 
their position, with the Border States, should the disruption of the Union 
be inevitable, and that all those assurances were hollow, and are now to 
be repudiated and abjured ? Is it not demonstrated that the States, which it 
was declared would be "prepared to act tog-ether," are not to be allowed "to 
act together," if Mr. Hicks can prevent it ? The result of the whole is per- 
fectly palpable. It is intended that ^Maryland shall ))e kept inert and silent 
under one pretext or another, until the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, and then 
her people are to be rallied to his support, as the representative of the govern- 



10 

ment and the Union, and tlieii* love and devotion to the Union are to be their 
lure and decoy into tlie practical support of the Republican party. (Cries of 
"Never, never.") I welcome the declaration, not only as your sentiment, but 
as the feeling of the whole people of the State. The scheme nevertheless is as 
plain as the sunshine — as transparent as the moonlight. Happily it is a bar- 
gain which it takes two to make, and which you can thwart. (Applause.) 

In attempting to expose it, I have had no desire to throw" one single spark of 
excitement into a controversy which the conduct of the Governor and his parti- 
zans has rendered exciting enough. But as a citizen and a gentleman — involved 
with whole masses of the good people of this State, in an imputation of treason 
and perfidy to that sacred constitutional Union, which I cherish more than all 
things else, in my relations, as a patriot, to my country — made too, in common 
with those whose opinions are like my own, the subject of insolent reproach to 
the Executive of my State, by the sympathizing Executive of another, I have 
felt it due to all of us that the course of Mr. Hicks should be made so plain, as 
that he who runs may read it. (Applause.) And I do solemnly declare, that 
I have never entertained an opinion, nor do I understand the resolutions before 
you as asserting a doctrine, in regard to the course to be pursued by Maryland 
in the contingency of a dismemberment of the Union, which goes one step 
beyond the doctrines of Governor Hicks upon the same subject, so repeatedly 
and ardently proclaimed by him, and now, at the last, repudiated. 

A word upon another branch of the same subject. The Constitution autho- 
rizes, and in my judgment directs, the Governor to assemble the Legislature 
upon extraordinary occasions. Even npon his own theory he is bound to ex- 
ercise that power now ; for whatever his previous opinions may have been, the 
very fact that he has sent commissioners to Washington, for the purposes set 
forth in the invitation of Virginia, is a concession that one of the most extra- 
ordinary occasions which could shake an empire has startled and affrighted this 
Republic. Nevertheless, he will not assemble the Legislature. The stars 
have said it. He has assumed, and his friends and advocates have assumed 
with him, t^hat its convocation is not desired for any other purpose than to fling 
this State forth, madly from its sphere. He and they contemplate, or profess 
to contemplate, nothing but secession, and secession in the wildest shape, and 
for the most corrupt and infamous purposes, as the result of the meeting of the 
General Assembly, Fellow-citizens— No man has a better right to know, and 
no one has a more incumbent obligation on hiin to do justice to the present 
Legislature of Maryland, than I have. I was before them, last winter, long 
and often, with friends who are around me, in the successful effort to restore, 
by proper legislation, the rights and order of this community. (Applause.) 
It is to their patriotic and conservative action, altogether, that you are in- 
debted for the freedom with wliich yon assemble here to-night to speak your 
sentiments, and for the security which will attend you to your homes when 
you separate. It is only because of that conservative action of theirs, on 
your behalf and mine, that red-handed murder no longer writes election returns 



11 

among us, for Congrcssnion who niisreprcscnl us, iiiid (iovcrnor« who tisurp 
our prerogatives. (Tremendous apjdau.se.) Antl I IcU you, fellow-cili/.ens, 
that the self-same reasons whieh make the Governor of Maryland distrust 
that Legislature, ought to be your reasons and mine for trusting it. It 
is natural that you and he should view with dilVerent eyes, the principles 
and conduct of those representatives of the people, hy whose interposition we 
were enabled to break down the brutal despotism which made him Governor of 
Maryland. (Applause.) I repeat, therefore, that I have reason for confidcuee 
in that Legislature, and that the proper mode of giving utterance to the sentiments 
of our people, is through a convention which that Legislature shall call. If the 
Governor persists in refusing to give the people that legitimate and constitu- 
tional opportunity of being heard, the responsibility is on his head, and they 
must do the next best thing they can, by calling a convention themselves. 
(Great applause.) 

In the presence of what crisis and what necessity do we stand, fellow-citizens ? 
Let us look at it like men. Six States ©f this Confederacy have gone out from 
it. God knows that their departure from this Union has given me only an- 
guish. The ringing of bells and the booming of cannon, seem to me no proper 
part of the demonstrations which belong to an event so sad. I feel as if every 
true-hearted man should bow to such a dispensation — inevitable as it might be 
— in the spirit with which he would follow his mother to the grave. (Sensation 
and applause.) But whatever be the feeling with which we regard the fact, it 
is a fact nevertheless. Six States have gone from among us. Call it revolu- 
tion, or secession or rebellion — call it anything you please — still they have gone 
out of the Union, and it depends upon the result of the conference, which.is 
about to take place in Washington, whether the remaining Slave States South 
and West of Maryland — the whole broad belt and border from the Atlantic to 
the Mississippi, and beyond — shall not go out likewise. And while this great 
problem of our destiny is being solved, and howsoever it may be solved, we are 
told that our interest and our duty — our obligations to the Kcpidjlic and our- 
selves — require us to be silent and quiet — to surrender ourselves to Gov. Hicks, 
and "cling to the Union !" Cling to the Union ? Cling to what ? What is 
the Union into which Maryland entered, and to which she belongs ? A great 
Republic, one and undivided, almost covering a continent. Where is she in 
that Union ? A central State— the tendrils of her prosi)erity fusteniug, upon 
every side, to the confederated communities around her. You break that con- 
federacy in the midst, leaving her a border province, with a foreign nation, and 
perhaps an enemy, beside her, and you tell her to cling to the Union still — to 
cling to what then exists no longer, in love or association, or peace 1 

Oh ! but say our constitutional lawyers at Annapolis and elsewhere— the Union 
will not be dissolved— the States will have only seceded, and secession is unroiisti- 
tutional— everything, therefore, will be as it was before, and Maryland mu.-t cling 
to it ! Are we talking with men, or are they talking to us as chddieu? Are we to 



12 

look at abstractions and statute-books, or are we dealing with the great and pal- 
pable, and if you please, the terrible facts of a revolution ? I have heard no ar- 
gument to prove to Marjdand that the States which have left and may leave the 
Union, in fact, must still be regarded as part of it, which would not prove with 
equal demonstration that the United States of America are still the colonies of 
(xreat Britain. I have heard no loffic that establishes the constitutional right of 
half the Union to call itself the Union, because it preserves the forms of the 
government, that would not equally prove Massachusetts to be the United States, 
if every other State were to leave her, provided she chose to retain the national 
name, and had army and navy and strength enough to enforce her pretentions by 
arms. 

The Cotton States, then, are out of the Union. The responsibility, it is true, is on 
their heads — but still they have left it. The Border States to the South and West 
of us, unless it pleases heaven to permit a compromise, will go out also. What 
is the State of Maryland to do ? To tell her to cling to the Union then, is to bid 
her cling to the North, and clinging to the North, means clinging to the Repub- 
lican party. (Applause.) And this — when she knows that if the line be drawn 
on the Slave border, the right is on the one side and the wrong is on the other, 
and the Republican party is the champion of the wrong. In the olden times, 
when the people of Maryland acted on such questions, and had found the right, 
they did not doubt whither their course lay — nor did it take them three months, 
with a volume of correspondence, to distinguish the right from the wrong. (Ap- 
plause.) 

But there is a theory, as you are aware, my fellow-citizens, upon which the 
fact of any possible disruption of the Union is seriously challenged in argument — I 
mean the theory that the Federal Government may of right coerce into allegiance 
the States which have abandoned it. T desire to speak upon this branch of the 
subject, without expressing the indignation with which I think it deserves to be 
treated. Speaking as a lawyer, upon a subject within the range of my profes- 
sional studies and reflections, and having anxiously sought to get at the truth in 
regard to it, without prejudice or passion, I assert the deliberate opinion — as 
strongly and as conscientiously entertained as any I have ever formed — that the 
idea of coercing a St^te or its people, wlien that State, in its corporate capacity, 
has declared itself out of the Union, has no color or support whatever from the 
Federal Constitution. Everything I have read convinces me, with equal 
positiveness, that any attempt to force such a principle into the Constitution, 
would have been utterly fatal to the possibility of its adoption. (Applause.) 
I challenge any man to read the records of the Convention which framed t!ie 
Constitution, or search the proceedings of the State Conventions which ratified it, 
and deny the fact, that whenever frhe suggestion of coercing a State was made, 
or of repressing by force any revolutionary State action, the men of mark and con- 
trolling influence in those bodies denounced it as impracticable and absurd, 
involving of necessity the bloody and hopeless disruption of the Union they 
were forming. I state the proposition as one standing by itself — unconnected 



13 

witli tlie question of the constitutionality or unconptitutionality of seccBsiini, and 
true in either aspect of that question. Andis it not right? Does it not carry alnng 
with it every interest of civilization and humanity — every principlo and theory on 
which our govornnients, both State and national, were fimnded ? 

I confess I cannot realize what <rentlenien mean when tiiey talk with s^ohcr se- 
riousness about hanging and shooting men back into brothcriiood an<l tuiiun with 
us. I do not understand their idea of perpetuating the Kepublic, by drenching 
its broken fragments with fraternal gore. A^»ove all, I eannot cmiiprehend the 
philosophy of those who, believing that secession is unconstitutional, .«:till believe 
that the people of the South have been goaded to it by unconstitutional wrong, 
and would execute them for treason nevertheless, because they are not quite pa- 
tient enough in enduring it. The Union is a great blessing and a glorious privi- 
lege, but there is no law of God or man which will uphold the doctrine of ce- 
menting it with blood, under color of maintaining a government, which rests 
upon two leading principles ; the one, that all government is founded on the 
will of the governed ; tUe other, that the doctrine of non-resistance to arbitrary 
power is slavish and absurd. (Applause.) 

I, for one, have those who are bound to me by the closest ties of kindred and 
affection, in two States, whose Conventions have solemnly repealed the ordinances 
whic-h bound them to the Union. There are a thousand men before me, each of 
whom has some close bond of friendship or of family, where the old political ties 
have been sundered. To say to you and to me, that it is our duty, under the 
Constitution we have sworn to uphold, to go among them with fire and sword, 
and to ravage and despoil their heritage, in order that they may love us and 
cleave to us hereafter, is to announce a doctrine, in support of which no govern- 
ment can ever raise the arm of one free man in Maryland. (Applause.) 

This is not sentiment merely. It is reason, and truth, and manhood — and any 
theory that the Union is to be preserved by compulsion will fall to the ground, and 
sink in it, of its own weight. What, then, is Maryland to do if compromise should 
fail, and the line of actual separation be drawn along her border ? It becomes her 
to be ready for that issue. She has a right to speak, and it is her duty and her 
interest to speak. Let her do it. (Applause.) Down to this time, no man i.s able 
to say with authority what her will is. The people of the North have believc'd her 
silence to be Northern syn)pathy, and they have resisted compromise. The people 
of the South have been discouraged by it, and they have precipitated action. She 
has not only held her own hand from the good work of mediation, but she has 
strengthened the hands besides, that were already too strong for the Constitution. 
Thank heaven, the sin of her withdrawal from the field where her labors were 
due, is not on your heads or mine. If ever history should write the record of the 
disruption of this government, the blackest of its pages will be that on which are 
written the nanus of those — whether States or men — who ought to have stood up 
between the living and the dead, yet did it not. Let the evil of such reproach 
hang over us no lunger. (Applause.) Let us assemble our Convention and de- 
clare our resolves, and no longer let our destinies be shaped for us by the will and 
usurpation of a single man. It may be that Governor Hicks is wiser than all the 



14 

rest of the Union put together. It may be that he has sources of information, " not 
accessible" to anybody else. It may be that the Convention, when assembled, may 
represent his sentiments, not yours or mine. If it should do so — very well — I 
will obey. If it should not, I desire him to obey. But it is time we had insisted 
upon having the point finally determined. It is not only due to our independence, 
our interests and our patriotism, but our self-respect and self-vindication demand 
it. Wars and rumors of wars, conspiracies and tumults, riots and routs, have been 
flitting in terrible array through the Governor's imagination, convincing him that 
we were not fit to be trusted with our own government and our own aflFairs, and that 
it was his paramount and sacred duty to keep us quiet and attend to our business 
himself. I suppose he has believed in all these visions and dreams, (laughter) — 
at all events he has acted upon them,- — and it is high time we had made up our 
minds to say whether they are true or false, and whether the Governor is the only 
man among us, in public or private station, who is honest and wise enough to be 
trusted with our stake in the Union or our destiny in the event of its disruption. 
If he is right, let the Convention say so. If we are to, go to the North, let the 
majority so rule — if we are to be spared that journey, let us know it! 

As to the questions which may come before the Convention, when it meets to 
deal with the great contingencies of the future, and the terms of our possible rela- 
tion to a Southern Confederacy, I am only now prepared to say, that they involve 
much complication and embarrassment, demanding all the resources of wise and 
patient statesmanship. There may be difficulties in my way, which will not be in 
yours, and difficulties in yours, which may appear none to me. The ballot-box 
will settle these differences, fairly and peacefully, and only the ballot-box can so 
deal with them. It is as far as possible from my purpose to say anything tending to 
excite, but I am as certain as I am of my existence, that if the Governor of Maryland 
were able to carry out his plan of preventing the people from thus determining these 
matters for themselves, it would create domestic strife among us, as surely and as 
sadly as coercion elsewhere would breed civil war. By temperament, and from 
conviction, I am a man of peace, and I turn therefore to the pacific arbitration of 
the ballot-box, as our refuge from the horrors of such an alternative. 

Fellow-citizens, I have finished what it has seemed to me proper to say to you. 
I repeat to you, so that no man may misunderstand me, that I desire, above all 
things, this glorious Union and Constitution to be preserved, for they are the best 
heritage bequeathed to us by our fathers, from whose dust every blessing of our 
political existence has sprung up to us. If that Union cannot be preserved by 
fair concession and honest and becoming compromise, I desire the State in which 
I was born to take her stand with the right. That it is right is reason enough, 
but I believe, besides, that with nations as with men, wherever right is, tliere 
every true interest is sure to be likewise. (Applause.) Whatever the decision 
of IMaryland shall be, in that decision I shall acquiesce, for my home and my 
destiny are here. But one thing I am sure of, and that is, that any reconci- 
liation that may be patched up, will be a wretched and melancholy fixilure, 
ominous of future and bloody discord, unless the question of slavery be 



15 

taken from the Congress of the United States, and tlie dis-onssion of tlie institu- 
tion and the principles wliich surround it, be removed forever from :ill political 
temptations. The people of the South will not — the people of Maryland never 
will — submit to have religion and morality manufactured for th<!m l)y JMassachus- 
etts. (Laughter and applause.) We will never consent to accept I'lymnuth 
Keck as tho touchstone of right and truth. (Applause.) 

One word more and I have done. What T have said to you, I have said alto- 
gether as a private citizen, speaking his individual sentiments only, and desiring 
to represent no one but himself. I believe that on occasions of public difficulty 
like the present, it is the duty of every man to form his own conclu><ions patiently 
and deliberately ; to express them frankly, and take the consequences. (Applau.'-e.) 
That done, his duty ends, and it is for the majority to settle the rest. I Ijelong 
to no party. I say this, because I desire to be understood as speaking in the inter- 
ests of no party, and to please none. I am no politician, and do not covet being 
regarded as one, for no man can be more wholly devoid than I am of political 
aspirations or ambition. If you believe, me to be a man of truth, I ask you to 
believe that I mean precisely what I say. For the opinions I have expressed 
to-night, I claim no indulgence, unless it be such to have them dealt with as hon- 
est, whether you or the community concur with them or do not. 

[Mr. Wallis took his seat amid immense applause and cries of " go on," " go 
on."] 



standard and Popular Books, Published by Murphy & Co. 

TUli MAKVLAM) COUK, containing all the Public fifHCi-al and Public Local 

LllWS, nom in force in the Siate of Maryland, conipilea hy Uino Scott and 
lIiiJAJi -M'Cui.LOL-un, Coinmiisioners; adoptud by the Legislature of JlarylauJ, January 
Se.ssi.in lo6!l: the Acts of that Sessiou being therewith IncorporateJ : witli an INDEX 
to eachAKTici.K and SS(;riO-V. By IlENny C. JMackall, of the Maryland Bar. Two 
Toliunes, 8vo. law sheep, UOU pages each, only S6. " Interleaved, SIO. 

The New OonsiituJion of the State of Maryland, with Marginal Notes, &c. 

Svo. cloth, SI: law sheen, §1 5U; law sheep, interleaved, $2. 

Tiic llevemie Laws of Maryland. 8vo. law sheep, $2. 

A History of Maryland, from iis s«ttleiiieiit in 1633, to the restoration in 1660. 
By .loii.v Lbeds Bozman, Esq., (published by order of the State Legislature.) 1,012 
pages, royal 8s'o., reduced to $3. 

Mesherry's History of Maryland, from its settlement, in 1634, to the year 1848. 

\2mu. cluth, SL cloth gilt, .$1 50. 

laws of Ihe United States, relating to the Navy and Marine Corps, from the 

formation of the Government to 1S.J9 : to which are preti.\ed the Constitution of the United 
States, (with an Index thereto,) and a Synopsis of the Legislation of Congress respecting 
Naval Aflairs during the Revolutionary war. Compiled by JoUN F. Callan, Clerk to the 
Military Cora. U. S. Senate, and A. W. EussELL, Clerk to the Naval Com. U. S. Senate. 
Just published. Svo. Law style, price S-l. 

The Military Laws of the United States, reliitlng to the Army, Marine Corps, 

Volunteers, Militi.a, and to Bounty Lands and Pensions, from the foundation of the Gov- 
ernment to the year 1858. By John F. Callan, Esq., Clerk to Military Com. U. S. Senate, 
(recently published,) 8vo. law sheep, S-l- 

The Constitution of the United States, with an INDEX to each Article and 

Sectio.v. By a citiicn of Wasliington. 8vo. paper, 23 ceuts. 

Lynch's Official Report of the U. S. Expedition to explore the Dead Sea and 

the River Jordan. 4to. cloth, $3 50. 

Fredet's Universal Histories.— Ancient Histort, from the Dispersion of the 

Sons of Ncie, to the Battle of Actiuni, and the change of the Roman Republic into an 
Empire. Modern History, from the coming of Christ, to the year of our Lord 1854. 
2 vols. 12mo. cloth, $2 30. library style, $3. 

The History of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road. Svo. cloth, $1 50. 

Lingard'S History of England, complete, with a Portrait and Memoir of the 

Author, hnely illustrated. 10 vo.s. bound in o. IJino. cloth, $10. half calf, S13. 
This is the last London Edition, embellished with fine Engravings, corrected and revised 
by the author, up to the time of his death, and the only reliable Edition published. 

Lingard'S England, abridged, with a continuation from 1688 to 1854. 8vo. clotli, 

S2; cloth, gilt^S2 ,'iO; library style, $2 50. 

The Genius of Christianity; or, the Spirit and Beauty of the Christian Religion. 

By ViscouNT DE CUATEAUBRiA.VD. 8vo. various bindings, from S3 50 to §6. 

Balntes on European Civilization; Protestantism and Catholicity compared in 

.tlicir Etfects on Civilization iu Europe. Svo. cloth, $2; library style, $2 50. 

The Sphere and Duties of Woman; a course of Lectures by George W. Bor- 

NAP, LL.O. 12ino. cloth, $1; cloth, gilt edges and sides, SI 50. 
Lectures to Young Men, on the Cultivation of tlie Mind, the Formation of char- 
acter, and the Conduct of Life. Bv Geohge VV. Euhxap, LL.D. Illustrated with a Por- 
trait of the Author. 12mo. cloth, SI ; cloth, gilt, SI 50. 

Hall's Designs for Dwelling Houses. 4io. cloth, $2 50. 

TaJes and Romances of Hendrik Conscience, the celebrated Belgian Novelist. 

Uniform Series. Just publislied in (i vols, denii Svo., embellished with neat Frontispiece 
and Vignette Title Pages. — cloth, 73o.; cloth, gilt edges, $1 per vol. The 6 vols, rod cloth, 
gilt edges, in neat paper boxes, $6 

1 The Curse of the Village.— The Happiness of Being Rich.— Blind Rosa. 
II. The Lion of Flanders ; or. The Battle of the Golden Spurs. 
HI. Count Hugo of Craenhove.— Wooden Clara —The Village Inn-keeper. 
IV. Veva; or. The War of the Peasants— The Conscript. 
V. The Jliser.— Ricketicketack. — The Poor Gentleman. 
VI. The Demon of Gold. 

Lady Oeorgi.ana Fullerton's Tales. Uniform Series, m 3 vols., l2mo cloth, 75. 

clotb, gilt edges, &c., SI 23 per vol. 

1. Ellen .Middleton. 2. Grantley Manor. 3. Lady Bird. 

Flowers of Love and Memory, by Mrs. Anna h. Dorsey. i-2mo. cloth, 75.— 

cloth, gilt, SI 

Etiquette at Washington, witli the Customs adopted by Polite Society in the 

other Cities of the United States: to which ia addeil a Complete Guide through the Me- 
tropolis; with an accurate deseriplioa of the Public Buildings. Embellished with Fine 
Illustrations. 18mo. fancy paper, 25 cts.; full cloth, gilt edges, 50 cts. 

hi Press. — Preparino; for Immediate Publication, The American Vo l - 
u N T E K K s ' M A N u A I. . — Miniunl of JlriHS, Facivgs, Steps, Positions, &c., 
eiT.[)loyi'cl in Heavy and Light Infaxtrv and Rifles, according to Scott and 
Hardee Tactics, every Motion being Fully Illustrated ; adapted to Self-Inslruc- 
tion, and for Volunteer Unifurm Corps. By Lem. D. Williams, '2d Lieutenant 
B Company, Battalion, Washinjrton Liiiht Infantry. 

A Tract for tub Timks.— -SVaorv nnd Abolitionism— Uaiwg tha substance of a Sermon, preached 
in the Church of St. .\ugustine, Florida, on the Itli of January, l,-;(;i. Day of Public Uumiliaiion, 
Fasting and Prayer. By the Kt. Rev. Aug. Verot, D.D., Vic. Ap. of Florida. 



^6: 



K- 



^0 



/ 



